Disclaimer: Nothing recognisable belongs to the author. It all belongs to Nintendo and Intelligent Systems. Some details may have been changed, but… on the whole, it's theirs. This is to be reproduced only with the author's permission, and may not be used for profit. If it is reproduced, this warning must be at the beginning of each document.


Chapter 8 – Vortex of Strategy

Two days later, they parted ways with Eliwood at Caelin's border. As the noble went to a village in the east, Lyn's group continued south.

"Two days." Kent's voice broke into Lyn's concentration. She started and looked over at him, trying to work out what he was talking about.

"Pardon?" She asked, turning to the cavalier who had replaced Rei temporarily in the marching order. The Kanhi girl had dropped back and was talking to Matthew in a low voice.

"You looked worried. I presumed about your grandfather. Lord Hausen is a strong man, I am certain that he shall survive the remaining two days until we reach the castle." The crimson shield smiled, reassuringly. At that moment, Lyn wanted nothing more than to wipe that smile off his face with her sword, and she realised that the strange anger rose from guilt. She hadn't been thinking about Hausen at all. It was the redheaded prince from the last few days that occupied her thoughts. Something about him unsettled her. He seemed almost too good to be true… though that wasn't the only thing. 'I've been approached by enemies in the guise of friends before'. She had been almost out of earshot, and she was fairly sure she hadn't been meant to hear the words, but what had Rei meant? She spoke as though it had been recent enough to still warrant suspicion…

Kent, sensing on some level that she needed to be alone with her thoughts, dropped back in the order to march beside his brother-in-arms. Meanwhile, barely twenty feet behind her, a similar conversation was taking place to her internal monologue.

"I want you to find out everything you can about them, especially why they might be targeting us. Also, I need to know if they have a hand in the Caelin situation." Rei spoke urgently, and after a moment Matthew nodded.

"Alright. Are you sure you don't mean why they're targeting you, Kurome-san?" The thief replied, a twinkle in his eye as Rei looked up at him, sharply, shock written across her features. "What? I make it a policy to know everything about the people I'm working for."

"How did you hear that name, Matthew?" She growled in a low voice. "I've never uttered it here."

"It filtered through. I just had to follow your back trail a few days. You've been going to great pains to leave a traceable route behind you, so you shouldn't be so surprised."

"I see." Rei replied, coldly. "May it please you not to call me by it again. The only name I have wish to claim is my own, not my father's. If you were so knowledgeable, you would know that."

"As you wish. I'll be about my business, then." Matthew smiled, and his horse peeled off the column to head towards a walled village not far away. He was as mystified by the Kanhi girl's sudden anger towards him as she was as to whom he had stolen the animal from, for almost the entire party was now mounted – though Wil clung almost comically to Rath as they rode together on the latter's' Stormchaser. The Pheraean boy had all the horse-sense of a mountain wolf, it seemed, and while either Nomad, or even the cavaliers, could have stayed seated with his floundering he seemed to have gravitated towards his polar opposite in the silent horse-archer.

Rei started to urge Petal to take her to the head of the column again, but the soft step of Lucius' new mount behind her made her pause. The monk's position in the marching order was near the back, with his companion, so if he was at the front he must need something. Contrary to her expectations, the blonde did not move past her to Lyn, however. She glanced over at him, forcing her emotions back under control.

"Lady Rei… might I have a word, please?" He asked, his voice soft. "I have seen something hanging over you… a black shadow. Do you have any problems that I could help with, perhaps?"

Something in his voice told her that he was not speaking metaphorically. Rei looked at him carefully, but saw nothing in his serene expression to suggest that he had an agenda of any kind. Perhaps it was simply his effeminate bearing and image, but he felt… safe, in a way no-one had since her mothers' death.

"I suppose I cannot hide it from you… but please, do not tell Lady Lyndis, or any of the others." She asked, quietly.

"I shall take it into priest's confidence, my Lady. Is it a curse? It has the feel of evil magic." The monk's voice was tinged with genuine concern, his blue eyes wells of eternal patience.

"Brother Lucius… I believe what you are sensing is the touch of pain used in the casting of a geas that my father had placed upon me before I left. How much of my tale do you know?" Rei decided to tell him everything he wanted to know. Though he had only travelled with them for a few days, something told her that he had pain of his own that needed to be shared.

"Only that you are come searching for your husband-to-be from the Fire Islands in the north, that you are the daughter of a minor noble, and that you do not fit in with the ideals of your homeland in some manner. This much, Sir Sain has told me. I suspect that he has surmised more, but if so he displays an unusual amount of discretion… for him." Lucius smiled, and Rei couldn't help but smile with him at the thought of the apparently airheaded knight exercising discretion.

"Very well… there is little more to say, as I do not wish to discuss the nature of my… condition. An illness, they called it. That is not what you sense, however…" She paused. "My father knows me, though perhaps not so well as he thinks he does. Before dispatching me upon this quest, he petitioned the Shugenja – the mage-priests of my homeland – to place upon me a spell to ensure that I fulfilled it. Until Nadeshiko Kojiro is found, if I abandon my quest – if I stay in any one place for more than the time it takes to search it, or if I find someone to lay with – the spell shall drive me onwards and away to continue the search."

For a moment, Lucius seemed speechless. Like a whale broaching the surface of an endlessly serene sea for a few brief moments, a look of pity and regret flashed through his eyes before being subsumed.

"Lady Rei… please, let me extend an apology to you on behalf of the Saint. If her servants had been present to witness this… this invasion, it would never have been allowed to happen. That the ones who agreed to cast the spell wear the robes of priests makes it a travesty. Please, allow me to explore this spell when we make camp this evening. There may be something I can do…" He trailed off at the look in her eye.

"No… if I let you remove it… that will just be proving to my father that he was right in setting it. I would rather die or travel forever than return to him, but he is my father, and he must be obeyed. Otherwise, what worth is there in me, if I cannot even do my duty to him? That is why… I must carry on, and find Kojiro, and yes, even marry him… though there are few thoughts more disgusting to my mind." Rei waited for the anger to come as it always did when she allowed her thoughts to turn to her father and fiancé, but the raw emotion never materialised. Looking at Lucius, it was as though his presence drained the negativity from her.

"As you wish…" He paused. "Your sense of duty is admirable, but as one who lost their father as a very young age, I fear that such devotion to one who seems to care for you only as an insurance policy is misplaced. I do not believe that you would find yourself unable to forgive the one who killed him if he were to be felled." He fell silent for a while as they both mulled over their words.

"I… perhaps. Thankyou, Brother Lucius. You have a way of saying the right things to make me think." Rei told him, eventually, and he nodded, taking it as the plea to be alone that it was. He dropped back to return to his place beside Raven, though the redhead ignored him for the most part, simply looking up to see who was approaching him.

This time, Rei made it to the front of the line, falling into place beside Lyn and barely escaping Serra, who apparently wanted to learn more about 'her' homeland. If there was anything Rei regretted from the last fortnight, it had been mistaking the identity of that Cleric. She was now utterly convinced that she was indeed some long-lost relative of Rei's intended.

"Lady…" Rei started, then looked around and dropped her voice so they wouldn't be overheard. "Lyn, is everything alright..? You've looked worried since the siblings joined us…"

"I'm fine. Really." There was a note in the swordlady's voice that hadn't been there before, however, and it sounded distressingly like distrust. They rode in silence for a minute or so then both started speaking at the same time.

"Rei, why…"

"Lyn, I…"

"You first." Rei said, lowering her head in something that felt worryingly like subservience.

"Rei, why didn't you tell me about the assassins? If you're being targeted, I want to be able to protect you… You're handy with those knives, but…" The swordswoman trailed off, unable to meet her tactician's eyes.

"I didn't want to burden you. There's so much else to worry you… your grandfather, Florina, your vengeance… looking after everyone. I don't even know why the Black Fang are after me. There's nothing you can do to help me, so…" Rei looked up, trying to catch Lyn's gaze again.

"I see…" Lyn looked back, and met her eyes. "Please, though… in the future, don't hide these things from me. Even if it's something I can't help with… I'm your friend, right? On the plains, we have a saying. 'A trouble shared is a trouble halved'. Won't you let me share your troubles?"

"I…" It was Rei's turn to look away. There were so many things… "I'll tell you. I promise. When we're done with this… what will you do? Stay with Lord Hausen?"

"I…" Before she could say what she would do, a light blue blur flashed in the corner of their vision as Ninian leaped from her horse with the agility of an air spirit, launching herself at Lyn and knocking her from Hunt's back mere seconds before a huge bolt, maybe two feet long, flashed through the space she was going to be and buried itself at Ninian's horse's feet. The surprisingly placid animal merely blinked at the enormous shaft that had almost ended its life and stepped over it, wandering almost two feet before Nils could catch its' reins and hold it steady next to his own.

"What was that? Ninian, please, let me up?" Lyn asked after she'd caught her breath. The dancer was lying on top of her, pinning her to the ground, and was clearly heavier than she looked.

"Yes… I'm sorry… I sensed the danger and did not know how else to prevent it." The dancer rolled off, and Lyn helped her up as she stood, the pastel-hued girl's twisted ankle stopping her standing on her own. Meanwhile, Rei scanned the horizon for the source of the bolt. She saw it after a few moments, a huge crossbow-like Ballista set up on top of a rocky outcropping on the hills in front of them.

"Everyone, spread out. Kent, Sain, Rath, I want you to find a way around that hill to the left. Florina, take Serra and get up there, take that ballista out. Raven and Lucius, take Ninian and Nils and take cover in that forest. Protect them. Everyone else, with Lyn, this way." She didn't wait for Lyn to finish helping the dancer back on her horse before nudging Petal to take them around to the right at a canter. She wasted no time wishing that Erk was more adept at offensive air magic, and able to strike down the archer from where he now clung to his horse. He'd be unable to fight mounted – but that was true of most of her group. She would, however, have preferred if Huey would deign to carry a male other than Nils. She would have felt a lot better if it had been Wil flying with the Pegasus knight, but she supposed she would have to make do with taking the ballista out of action rather than commandeering it for the moment.

Hoofbeats behind her told her of the others following as Lyn, Wil riding pillion, caught up and then started to draw ahead, having already seen their target. For a moment, Rei was dismayed at the regiment of pikemen that faces them. There were few things worse to charge with horses than the bristling array of spears.

Wil slid off the back, stringing his bow in seconds and turning to loose an arrow into the leader of the regiment, even as Lyn continued her charge, drawing the Mani Katti and holding it above her head.

"Eya! Eya! Kele, kele, kele!" The Sacaean cried as she charged, standing up in the stirrups and urging her horse to keep moving even though it wanted to baulk at the deadly points set against it. A second arrow followed the first, and a hole suddenly opened. Turning aside at the last moment, Lyn hung sideways off her horse to sweep her blade across the line of men, cutting through armour and pike-haft equally. Charging on foot, having dismounted beside Wil, Dorcas and Erk hit the squadron at the same time, axe and flame working in terrifying concert to tear the regiment to shreds even as Lyn wheeled Hunt around and dismounted, charging the side of the regiment on foot as their ranks broke.

"Lady Lyndis… I am afraid that this is not good news." Kent spoke softly, for Lyn and Rei's ears only. They were standing in the castle hall that, until recently, had been host to Captain Yogi's division of the Caelin army, consisting of a regiment of pikemen, two ballista, and a five-strong unit of cavaliers. "These men were not bandits or assassins, they were soldiers of Caelin. I knew some of the men I killed today. You are certain of Captain Yogi's words?"

"Completely." Lyn nodded. "He knew who I was, and who you were, and he still attacked us. Why would he do such a thing?"

"Because he was ordered to." The pleasant voice interrupted them as Matthew appeared from nowhere as was his wont. He looked tired, like he'd done just as much work as any of the fighters that day. "He was sent here to kill or apprehend the pretender to the throne calling herself Lyndis of Caelin, and her two treacherous knights." He paused. "It gets worse. I fed a hungry innkeeper some coin and he told me that Lord Hausen really is ill. The rumour is, though, that it's not a natural illness. He's being poisoned. Until he recovers, a certain noble has valiantly stepped into his position."

"Lord Lundgren." Lyn guessed. "My granduncle."

"Indeed. That's not all, however. Mercenaries have been hired, weapons bought from out-state. Militia have been ordered to train for twice as long as normal, and every day rather than one a week. Trees have been being felled to make ballista, bows and spears." Matthew looked to Rei to draw the obvious conclusion.

"Caelin is preparing to go to war." The Kanhi girl said, her throat going dry. "But against whom? Caelin has no external borders… unless…" She trailed off.

"Unless what? Lady Rei, what is it?" Kent asked, frowning. He couldn't think of any reason for Caelin to prepare such a thing.

"Unless Caelin are going to war against Lycia itself." Rei forced herself to say after swallowing. "But what do they have to gain from such a thing..? Matthew, did you find out anything else? Any reason for this? Why now?"

"Nothing. Not a thing's left the castle since the orders were given." The thief shook his head, helplessly. "Sorry. I might be able to learn more if I went to the castle, but I'm not much faster alone than the group is."

"It's alright. Thankyou, Matthew, you've done well. Get some food into you and get some sleep." Lyn told him, pushing the haggard-looking thief towards the other end of the hall where the siblings and clerics were taking care of the victual. "We should eat as well. I need to think about this some…"

As they approached the tables, the voices of the two priestly members of their group cut into their thoughts.

"So just stay away from me, got it?" Serra was telling Lucius, threateningly.

"Um… okay… but…" Lucius stammered, clearly overwhelmed by the vocal female.

"Well? What is it? Spit it out already!" Serra demanded, putting some of the brown stew into a bowl with bread and giving it to Rei without even looking at her. Lucius served Kent mechanically, even as he stuttered his response.

"Well… you see… I'm n-not just a cleric… I'm a m-monk, s-so you s-see…" He muttered, looking at the ground and blushing slightly.

"WHAT?!" Serra's shriek turned every head in the hall as she dropped her ladle into the stew. "But… but… but… to be a monk, don't you have to be a… well… a guy?"

At that point, two things happened. Sain, sitting at a nearby table, blushed to the roots of his hair and made an excuse to rush out of the room, and Lucius found his willpower as Raven started moving towards them.

"Yes." He said firmly, looking Serra in the eye. "Yes, you do."

That was when the cleric fainted. All in all, Rei decided as she went to sit down with her stew next to Florina, who was talking quietly to Ninian, it had been a day of varied results. Miraculously, no-one had suffered any injuries Serra had been unable to heal during the battle, she had unburdened herself of some uncomfortable secrets, and she would have a night free of escaping the Cleric's endless questions. On the other hand, she realised that she needed to think about her father – it couldn't be put off forever – and also the situation here in Caelin. If the other Lycian states decided to interfere, Lyn and the rest of the group would have no chance to make it through to see Lundgren or the castle. Perhaps more worrying was the burgeoning threat of war. Caelin was not the strongest state – that, as ever, was reserved for Ositia – but it wasn't as small as Kathelet or Badon. If any of the other states were making the same preparations, it could easily turn into a bloody affair that would spread death and destruction across the continent.